Daewoo wants to drill three wells at Myanmar block A3
Daewoo is firming up plans to drill three exploration wells at offshore Myanmar exploration block A3, where ONGC Videsh and GAIL together hold 30%.
Current plans are to begin the drilling campaign in January 2007 until May or June the same year when the fair weather window closes. Operator Daewoo had earlier planned four wells at A3 in 2007, but it now turns out that only three wells will be drilled, as the narrow fair weather window cannot accommodate a fourth well.
A final decision will be taken on 21st and 22nd October when consortium partners meet to finalise the 2007 work programme. Daewoo has already drilled a successful well at A3, where it reported the Mya gas discovery using Chinese semi submersible Nanhai-II.
Mya was a shallow water discovery but the three wells planned for 2007 lie in deep water. All three locations sit in water depths of 500 metres, says a source.
TD will be about 3500 metres for each of the three wells. Daewoo has begun talks with drilling contractors to hire a deepwater rig for the A3 drilling programme.
Hiring a deepwater rig will cost not less than $500,000 per day in todays climate, we hear. Each well will take about 45 days and cost about $20m, including testing.
Daewoo has identified the three locations from 2D seismic already shot at A3. Some 3D seismic was done in February (2006) and this will be used to fine tune the locations.
This fine tuning, we understand, might result in the locations changing by about two or three kilometres. Myanmar authorities want to quickly finish the drilling and appraisal programme at A3 so that the Mya and other fields at A3 can begin production fast alongside neighbouring block A1.
Last month, UK-based reservoir consultant Gaffney Cline & Associates submitted a combined reserves estimate of the A1 and A3 blocks to Daewoo to add to an earlier reserves estimate by Ryder Scott for only the Shwe field at A1.